In sickness and in health? Why women are more often broken up with after a serious diagnosis

Hello ladies, how are you doing?

Today, I wanted to bring up a topic that many don’t talk about openly but it has a huge emotional impact: the link between serious illness and relationship breakdown, especially for women.

According to a study, women are six times more likely to face separation or divorce after being diagnosed with a serious illness like cancer or multiple sclerosis compared to men with similar conditions. 💔 In other words, when the wife is the patient, the relationship is far more likely to end.

It’s heartbreaking, but sadly not surprising to many. The study suggests that women often take on caregiving roles more naturally, while men may struggle to adapt when their partner becomes ill. It also found that older women and shorter marriages were more at risk for this kind of abandonment.

For those of us navigating life with a chronic illness, this hits close to home. We talk about pain, medication, fatigue, but what about the loneliness that comes when someone we love pulls away right when we need them most?

Have you experienced or feared something like this?

Do you think gender roles still shape how partners handle illness?

And most importantly, how do we rebuild trust and support when life changes so drastically?

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We’d love to hear your experience or perspective on this.

Take care,

Somya from the Carenity team 🌼

Source: Glantz, M. J., Chamberlain, M. C., Liu, Q., Hsieh, C. C., Edwards, K. R., Van Horn, A., & Recht, L. (2009). Gender disparity in the rate of partner abandonment in patients with serious medical illness. Cancer, 115(22), 5237–5242.